Weapon changes are coming to Destiny 2 alongside Into the Light

Players may already be excited about the new content coming with Destiny 2: Into the Light, but Bungie announced a slew of weapon changes that will accompany the update. While some of the tweaks don’t amount to much, some weapons will feel a lot different come April 9. 

Into the Light is a free content update for Destiny 2, available on April 9. The update is absolutely packed with goodies, from a new horde mode called Onslaught to reintroduced sunset weapons to the return of beloved Exotic missions. Into the Light reintroduces a lot of content back to the game, but it’s not stopping there. With the influx of new toys to play with and a bunch of new places to use them, Bungie felt it was time to look at weapon performance and make adjustments as needed.

Into the Light weapon archetype changes

In the This Week In Destiny communication for April 4, Bungie spent the first bit of the post recapping the final stream for Into the Light and providing a short update on PvP. Once concluded, the team dove right into weapon changes for PvE and PvP that would roll out on April 9 with Into the Light.

The first weapon change Bungie noted was for breech-loaded grenade launchers. Impact damage has been increased by a whopping 40%, leading to an overall damage increase of around 15%. The studio noted that this change would ensure The Mountainop’s return felt adequately powerful. On the flip side, disorienting grenades saw a nerf of the same amount, 15%, to both damage and the disorient effect itself.

Bungie called out that lightweight bows have been in a rough spot since the last PvP-focused weapon tuning. To offset this, Into the Light will see lightweight bows get a 6% damage increase. However, Exotics like Le Monarque and Wish-Ender won’t benefit from this buff. Alternatively, precision auto rifles saw a 5% damage decrease, as they’d become too safe and forgiving.

Hand cannons are getting a couple of positive changes, with adaptive and precision frames reaping the rewards. Specifically, Bungie paid extra close attention to how easy it was for these frames to take out other Guardians in two or three shots. Adaptive hand cannons are getting a 1% increase in body shot damage and a 4% increase in critical hit damage. On the other hand, precision hand cannons will see a flat 6% increase in base damage.

Pulse rifles are also seeing a fair bit of work. Adaptive frames are getting a 5% damage increase to body shots and a 2% damage bump for critical damage. Lightweight frames’ body shot damage is increasing by 6% and critical damage by 3%. Finally, rapid-fire frames will be a bit more forgiving in addition to getting a 3.5% buff to body shot damage and a 1% bump to critical damage.

Finishing archetype changes off, rapid-fire scout rifles are getting a 2% flat damage increase, and an issue was resolved where shotguns weren’t quite as effective as they should have been in the Crucible.

Into the Light Exotic weapon changes

While the list of Exotic weapon changes is shorter than the archetype tweaks, some notable buffs and nerfs are hitting select Exotic weapons for Into the Light. Bungie led off with an Exotic weapon featured in one of the returning Exotic missions: Whisper of the Worm. 

The studio noted that Whisper of the Worm has been built up damage-wise over the last few seasons and that it feels plenty powerful. To make the weapon more attractive for end-game, ammo reserves have increased from 18 to 24. Of course, Guardians can bump that number up further with reserves mods on armor. Similarly, One Thousand Voices is also a powerful Heavy weapon with limited reserves. It will also see a total ammo bump from 7 to 11 before mods.

The Last Word hand cannon will see a flat 6% damage bonus, and an issue has been corrected with Forerunner where it was doing more critical damage than it should have. Forerunner is also getting a 6% damage increase to compensate for the change. 

Now, for the nerfs. Thankfully, it’s only one, and it makes sense, but it still stings. Quicksilver Storm is getting a fairly substantial nerf, requiring 50% more hits to load a grenade for its alternate fire mode and decreasing the AOE damage from said grenades by 37.5%. 

Bungie explained why it knocked Quicksilver Storm down a peg, noting, “Quicksilver Storm has been one of the top PvE Primary weapons since it shipped in Season of Plunder, and the time has come to dial it back a little. With these changes, it’s slower to build up grenades, and the grenades deal reduced damage. But given that previously one magazine would give you three grenades, and each grenade hit like a heavy grenade launcher, it’s still a very strong option.”

Into the Light weapon Perk changes

As any longtime Guardian knows, a weapon is only as good as its Perks. To that end, Bungie’s weapon changes included some alterations to how some Perks function. The studio started by bringing up the returning Recluse submachine gun and its Master of Arms Perk. In its original form, kills with other weapons triggered a damage buff for The Recluse. That damage buff was 20% but dropped to 15% for its Into the Light return. 

Continuing the trend of updating sunset weapon Perks, Bungie talked about the Magnificent Howl Perk on Luna’s Howl. Originally, the Perk granted a damage and range buff after landing two precision shots quickly. Bungie described how the new Perk would work, saying, “The number of Precision final blows before reloading affects the total rounds granted with increased range and damage. Precision final blows while Magnificent Howl is active extend the effect for additional rounds.”

The most in-depth change to a Perk is on The Mountaintop’s Micro-Missle. First, the team changed the Perk into an Intrinsic Trait, hoping to make more weapons like The Mountaintop in the future. To complement this, Micro-Missle now provides some physics interactions for players, launching Guardians up if they shoot at their feet. Then, to ensure it didn’t become an obligatory pick in PvP, Bungie dialed down the damage it does to players while maintaining its PvE damage. Finally, the Perk now offers a bonus to reload speed.

The final Perk change is more of a fix. Permeability was causing The Slammer sword to get stuck with Strand. Into the Light will resolve this issue and bring all of these other weapon changes along with it.